<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Is This Really The Time For This Discussion? by ThunderStag</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23456068">Is This Really The Time For This Discussion?</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThunderStag/pseuds/ThunderStag'>ThunderStag</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Star Wars - All Media Types, Stargate SG-1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Awkward Roommates, Gen, Infiltration, Lightsaber Combat Badly, Lightsabers, Not These Two, Political Nonsense, They Really Should Have Sent Someone Else, kind of, oh well</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-04-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-04-02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 15:02:03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,735</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23456068</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThunderStag/pseuds/ThunderStag</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>A human getting abducted by aliens isn't old news, but being abducted into a complex galactipolitical situation from what amounts to the Antarctica of the galactic world makes it even more ridiculous than it sounds. I'm going to regret a lot of this, aren't I?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>54</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Is This Really The Time For This Discussion?</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">


        <li>
            Inspired by

            [Restricted Work] by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/dogmatix/pseuds/dogmatix">dogmatix</a>, <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/norcumi/pseuds/norcumi">norcumi</a>. Log in to view.
        </li>
        <li>
            Inspired by

            [Restricted Work] by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/dogmatix/pseuds/dogmatix">dogmatix</a>, <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/norcumi/pseuds/norcumi">norcumi</a>. Log in to view.
        </li>

    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I wrote this as part of Dogmatix and Norcumi's Star Fever, their fun challenge for anyone who wants to to write a story set in the world of A Star To Steer By.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>#Well, that was more complicated than it had to be,# I commented to Nepto in my mind. #Great security, but seriously, there needs to be a way to establish credibility in a pinch going forward.#</p>
<p>#That assumes this will go forward, Ethan,# she replied. #I would rather make as little an imposition in your life as I can. Especially given what has already happened between us.#</p>
<p>#This needs a good, long discussion later on, but I’m seriously not opposed to continuing our partnership,# I said. #For now, which way to the kitchens? We need to look like we belong here, and an apron would go a long way towards that.# The Jedi in my mind didn’t point – it would have looked odd even without considering the company we were in – but rather pushed a sensation of a direction into my mind. She was still twitchy about taking control, and I couldn’t blame her. We’d been through too much apart and not enough together for the kind of thoughtless partnership she’d had with her old host, yet. I followed her directions, picked up a set of flower vases and carefully pushed into the smaller of the two doors there. A large man with green scales and massive eyes gave me a weird look, and I muttered, “‘scuse me,” as I hurried further into the kitchen.</p>
<p>#You take to clandestine operations with concerning ease, my friend,# my Jedi told me. #Surely a few weeks with Tyranus was not enough to teach you this?# </p>
<p>#I fully expect to feel kind of bad about it later, when we’re not busy,# I replied. #But I’m pretty good at compartmentalizing and playing a role, or at least I like to think I am. Besides, the key is to just act like you’re supposed to be here. These guys are cooks, not security guys. Making sure the riffraff isn’t getting in isn’t their job, and they’re feeding a couple hundred picky rich people right now. Other priorities, especially if I’m carrying something from out there.# I set down the flowers with a few others, though none of the right color, and ducked into a likely closet. There, as I’d hoped, a bag full of laundry sat waiting. I started digging. #Mind keeping an ear out for interruptions?# I asked. #This is going to take a minute. Maybe you can get a read on who’s looking to start a fight out there while I’m busy with this.#</p>
<p>My Jedi didn’t respond, instead sinking into the Force to begin looking for the roil of purpose danger menace that might mean an assassin was in the room outside. She didn’t find anything incriminating in the time it took me to pull on a fancy, slightly wrinkled white tunic and a black apron, lightsaber tucked beneath the concealing fabric, but she did notice something significant.</p>
<p>#Nobody here specifically wants to kill, but a few of them are more afraid to die than quite makes sense on a moon like Karit III,# Nepto said. #We’re not close to the front, there’s a more specific danger here to be worried about.#</p>
<p>#Let’s hope it’s the assassin,# I said. #At least then we’d be expecting it. What were the warnings, again?#</p>
<p>#The code was very old – more a series of impressions than anything like a language – but it referred to a particularly strong killer and a target that had something specific to do with this meeting. It’s a powderkeg here, Ethan. Senators involved in half the critical operations of the war effort are present. If even one of them dies, the Senate will be bogged down for weeks trying to work around the absence.#</p>
<p>#Are we sure just one of them is the target?# I asked. #If what you said is true, then surely killing a few dozen would let the Separatists regain the ground they’ve lost these last few months.# As we discussed, I headed back out into the kitchen proper and retrieved a large, covered platter made of something like silver. From the weight, there wasn’t anything inside, which was ideal – I could move more freely without having to worry about spilling something and making a scene. Then I headed back out into the main dining room, following a small crowd of servers bearing identical platters. That they had little hats and I did not didn’t seem to throw anyone off just yet.</p>
<p>#The warning didn’t refer to a mindless weapon, though,# Nepto pointed out. #Think, Ethan. Killing more than one Senator would do a great deal of useful damage, but unless they knew we could catch the code it doesn’t add up. What are we missing?#  It was something I’d begun to appreciate about my Jedi: she didn’t blindly disagree, she made it a discussion. I’d had plenty of bosses and so on who didn’t do that much for me.</p>
<p>#You’ve told me a little about the kinds of warriors involved in this war,# I said. #Crazy generations-long feuds and murderous vendettas and worse coming out of the woodwork, every last one of them with a grudge and a family heirloom or a lost weapon of mass destruction. Drop a bomb, you’ll kill people. Drop a nutcase and you’ll scare people. Who would scare the most people?# We’d started making progress into the crowd itself – I’d swapped the empty platter for a tray of glasses, and I was using Nepto’s enhanced balance to keep it from tipping over as we walked faster than the rest of the crowd, trying to be everywhere at once.</p>
<p>#Not Ventress – she is a brilliant fighter and a rogue Jedi, but she no longer fights for the Separatists. Not Durge – Obi-Wan destroyed him on Mirialan, and Skywalker threw him into a sun. That leaves Grievous, but last I heard he has been making a nuisance of himself far from here for months, trying to destroy another Temple.#<br/>
#Are we sure it isn’t Grievous? He’d scare people like few others, from what you’ve said.# By now, we’d made it into one of the smaller dining areas – the full dining room was divided into a lot of smaller sections, so Senators could get their schmooze on without having to talk over a dozen other conversations. It also served to break up sightlines, which was probably intentional. This thought caught me by surprise – I wasn’t a soldier of any sort. It took me a second to realize that it had probably leaked over from Nepto. #Incidentally, are you leaking instincts?#</p>
<p>There was a sensation of horrified realization, followed by what probably would have looked like someone scrambling to slam a bathroom door shut if it had been physical. #That was not intentional, Ethan, I apologize. Under other circumstances I would have mingled my instincts with my host to better share our skills, but we are too new to this; I had no intention of invading your privacy in that way.#</p>
<p>I paused for a long moment, then sighed and flagged down another server moving towards the kitchen. “Could you drop this in the kitchen for me?” I murmured to them. “Something’s come up with one of the temp guys from before, someone asked me to try to calm him down.” Nepto reacted in some way to my quiet lie, but didn’t say anything. The server, a Twi’lek, nodded quickly and took my platter. I strode purposefully for the side door into the small delivery area where they presumably stored tables during smaller engagements. #I said we’d talk later, but Nepto, I think we need to have a quick discussion right now.#</p>
<p>#We are looking for an assassin, Ethan, we cannot simply-#</p>
<p>#We can step away for a second, Nepto! If we can’t trust each other for this we might as well just set off a bomb ourselves! Listen to me!# She seemed to tense, then, but finally relaxed and allowed me to start feeling the broader scope of her emotions again. I could feel her worry and exhaustion, her carefully-hoarded grief over her former host’s sudden passing and her abiding shame at how we’d come together. It hadn’t been her fault or mine. #Nepto, I don’t hate this arrangement we have! I never would have chosen this, but I’m not about to have a breakdown if you go to scratch my head when I’m not thinking about it! Why can’t we work together on this?#</p>
<p>#Ethan, when I said that Tyranus had committed an unforgivable act of cruelty, I was not exaggerating. We Jedi possess the ability, as you have seen, to take control of anyone, anyone, in the known galaxy with very few exceptions. Be they a child or a venerated leader, be they a captain of industry or a cashier from an uncontacted planet with no idea we exist, the Jedi are fully capable of being an unmatched nightmare for any sentient being. For that reason, our most sacred law – the fundamental bedrock around which our entire society is built – is that we cannot do so. There is no trial of forgiveness. There is no recompense, even if the host should forgive the Jedi who took them. There are studies – entire professional degrees – dedicated purely to studying the psychological damage such a crime does to the host.</p>
<p>#Your reaction has been stable, and your method of freeing yourself...novel, but the fact remains that circumstances forced us together less than two days after you had experienced that terrible violation. I cannot help but fear that I am suborning your true will and throwing you into terrible danger for my own goals without truly allowing you to make your own decision. Do you understand how much of the decision-making process we have skipped, in this case? If you were even just a citizen of the Republic, you would have known of the possibility for years! You would have had time to consider that for your entire life! Yet here you are half a month after your first ever encounter with the Jedi, and you keep trying to convince me that you’ve made that decision already! Surely you understand my fears?#<br/>
I did. I understood, or at least I understood where she was coming from. But there was more to it than she had considered, and it was strange to hear the Jedi I’d first encountered as such an incredible font of serenity fretting and worrying like this. #Nepto, I’m not a child.# Nepto’s emotions stilled again, quieting from fear-worry-guilt to confusion. #I know how old you are. I know what you’ve been through, and how long you were with your last host, but the fact remains that I’m a full-grown adult. I can make decisions for myself, and I have before. I am now. And my decision is that it’s fine, Nepto. This is what I want. I think in a way it’s something I’ve always wanted. Let me work with you. Let me help you save these people, and many more to come. Please.#</p>
<p>Silence for a long moment. Then a mental sigh. A rueful shaking of her head. #You have seen clearly what these old eyes could not,# Nepto said. #Very well, Ethan. We will be partners, here and in many other battles if the Force wills it. Now, I believe we have a room full of senators to save?#</p>
<p>A crash sounded from outside. #Yeah, I think you’re right,# I said. #Lead the way, partner.# With that, Nepto took control fully for the first time and walked them out the door.</p>
<p>Outside the closet, the crash turned out to be a pair of serving droids running into each other. The droids weren’t full waiters, exactly – Nepto’s memories indicated that they had enough programing to avoid obstacles and offer drinks, but weren’t complex enough to offer the kind of service you’d expect from a full sentient. The thing was, they usually weren’t so stupid as to accidentally run into one another. Other serving droids were actually the easiest thing for them to avoid, since they could locate each other with their fancy droid brains or something. So if two were running into each other like this, and in this specific place, knowing what we knew…<br/>
A noise came from behind where everyone was watching the droids make a scene. It was the distinctive snap-hiss of a lightsaber activating, followed by a horrified gasp of pain. With a sinking feeling, I turned around.</p>
<p>A menacing, ten-foot cyborg stood against the far wall, blue and green lightsabers in its four hands. A server knelt before it, expression frozen in agony, one of the lightsabers protruding from his stomach. The cyborg rumbled with a menacing laugh and withdrew the lightsaber, giving off the impression of having been grinning with malice despite having no give in his skull-like mask of white metal. </p>
<p>#Grievous,# Nepto growled in my mind.</p>
<p>#Didn’t we establish that it probably wasn’t him?# I squeaked back, terrified. Grievous looked like he could take ten of me armed with bazookas, nevermind one lightsaber I had no practice using.</p>
<p>#I think it has become clear that our threat-analysis paradigm is flawed,# Nepto said. #I do not believe that I can take him. If we had had time to train this body in the use of a lightsaber, perhaps. If I were in Trecia’s body and forty years younger, perhaps. Now? We cannot but stall him.#</p>
<p>#Well, then, let’s stall him!# I said. #I don’t know how to do the telekinesis thing yet. Show me how and I’ll focus on that while you try to keep us away from him.# </p>
<p>#I do not believe our partnership is strong enough for that yet – # Grievous ignored her by hurling himself into the crowd, and one of us reacted in time to get between him and his next victim with our lightsaber active. Never mind not knowing how to use the thing; there’s dueling a guy with four arms and the strength to tear up a tree by its roots, and there’s putting a lightsaber between two people. That much, we could manage – even if it felt like a truck slamming into my arms.</p>
<p>#No time like the present to figure it out,# I said grimly. Grievous snarled.</p>
<p>“Jedi scum,” he hissed, and wow, there was a lot of out-and-out hatred in there. Not the kind of hatred you feel for a simple enemy, either – I don’t have a lot of experience reading emotions yet, and his were weirdly clouded compared to the bright flame of fear in the senators and servers around me, but Grievous wanted some quality time with me, Nepto, and a pool of boiling acid soonest. Best keep our distance.</p>
<p>#I concur,# Nepto said, and leapt us over Grievous’ head to land on the nearest table. #To move an object with the Force is simple enough, through it takes no small degree of focus. Allow me to explain.# She did while keeping us ahead of Grievous’ slashing blades as the robotic general started focusing on us instead of everyone else, and things got jumbled and panicked for a second. It was actually very impressive to watch; she was multitasking brilliantly in this dance of death, and I found myself worrying that I would get in the way if I tried anything. </p>
<p>#The most difficult aspect is not to lose faith in your ability to channel the Force,# Nepto finished. #Fear not, Ethan. I may be the conduit through which you access it, but we are made stronger together. It will not fail us here.#</p>
<p>My resolve solidified. My expression, which she had been in control of, shifted to match. #Right,# I said, and began to focus.<br/>
The Force is not a simple energy source. It functions as one, to be sure, and a skilled user can empower themselves to a massive degree if they want to, but it isn’t just one thing. I’d been getting low-level empathic links to other people for the few hours we’d been together, but now I was getting a decently close look at their actual thoughts. Mostly the ones I could actually get a good look at were panicked and desperate, but it was clearer than it had been all night. Moreover, I could feel the web of shifting potential that Nepto was privy to at all times. I felt as it changed around us whenever we moved, how she followed the path that ended with the fewest severed limbs and kept only inches ahead of Grievous. I also felt how the fact that we were just dodging, not trying to counterattack, was about the only thing keeping us alive right now, and decided to change things around.</p>
<p>A chair rose up from the table beside the one we had just jumped to and hurled itself at Grievous. He slashed it away without even bothering to look, but I had only given it enough of a push to get it moving; I was already trying for a few other chairs, these all at once. He didn’t bother to block a lot of them, his armor clearly enough to protect him from mere wood, and I frowned, thinking hard.</p>
<p>#We need something heavier than a chair,# I said.</p>
<p>#Door,# Nepto growled, and sure enough one of the doors was open and swinging. Presumably people were fleeing. I could help with that, if only I could gather the strength to actually move the thing...which I was quickly finding I could not.</p>
<p>#Get us some space, I need your help!# I said, and we hurled ourselves across the room. It didn’t keep him from jumping after us, but Nepto had the time to lend her greater talent to mine and we hauled at the door together. It didn’t do all that much.</p>
<p>#Oh dear,# said Nepto.</p>
<p>#Yeah,# I agreed. Then we hurled ourselves away again as Grievous charged through the table we’d just landed on. #I think we might need to try something else. Ideas?#</p>
<p>#Exit the building, I think,# Nepto said, and without waiting for me to verbally agree began to move for the nearest window. They were thick, blaster-resistant transparisteel, but not much of a challenge to a lightsaber slash and a good, hard shove with the Force. Unfortunately, as we turned to check for Grievous, we saw him bolt for the door. Apparently he wasn’t quite as single-minded as I’d hoped, but then he was the general of a feared army. It might have been too much to hope for.</p>
<p>#This may backfire,# I said to Nepto. Then, aloud, “Grievous, you honorless son of a feral cat! Get your empty metal skull back in the fight!”<br/>
It had the desired effect of turning him in our direction, but his emotions flared to new heights of rage as he did, and I found myself actually physically ill at the sensation of that much rage.</p>
<p>#How did you know he would react to that? He just tried to assassinate several dozen people in cold blood. I don’t think he’s had what you’d call honor for a long time.#</p>
<p>#I did also insult his mother,# I pointed out. #Might have been that.#</p>
<p>It didn’t really matter. Grievous howled towards us, lightsabers spinning, and Nepto took that as her cue to jump us from the window to the roof of the nearest building, where a pair of clone troopers were stationed.</p>
<p>“Master Jedi?” one of them asked, sounding understandably surprised, and I grabbed him and his buddy by the arms and dragged them down to the ground. Grievous chose that moment to leap as well, and his jump carried him way further than ours had.</p>
<p>“Ah,” said the other clone, and he opened fire. A few of his shots actually hit the General, but it wasn’t enough to do more than dent and score his already-weathered armor plating and make him angrier. The other clone joined in, then, and I grabbed a grenade I saw on one of their belts and threw it, too. When the explosion faded, the General was gone.</p>
<p>“That’s probably not good,” said the first clone, and I groaned.</p>
<p>#Probably better take over for this one, Nepto,# I said, and she expressed a nod to me before turning to the clones.</p>
<p>“Jedi General Holya Nepto, troopers. As you can see, we weren’t as secure as we’d hoped.”</p>
<p>“I’ll say,” one of them said. “Trooper Headache, sir. This is Whisper. What are your orders?”</p>
<p>“We are out of the loop, gentlemen,” Nepto said curtly. “I have been on special assignment for several months and I have only just now taken Host Ethan as my partner. We’re not up to fighting Grievous head-on at the moment. I need one of you to get the spaceport shut down and one to get me in contact with whoever’s in command right now.”</p>
<p>“I’ll get the spaceport, sir,” Whisper said. “Headache, get on the horn. Commander’s probably trying to corral the Senators.”</p>
<p>“On it. Command post’s downstairs, sir. We were about to head down when Grievous jumped out after you.” As he led us down the stairs, I watched him put his hand up to his ear, presumably saying something in the privacy of his helmet. After a brief conversation, he turned to us and said, “the Commander’s waiting for you downstairs, sir. He’s getting the Senators into shelter and organizing the medics.”</p>
<p>“Very good, Corporal,” Nepto said. “Now, as I said, we are out of the loop. What is the state of things in the Galaxy? How have the fronts evolved?”</p>
<p>Corporal Headache gave us a brief summary of the state of the war effort as we headed downstairs. Apparently, the generals who Nepto had mentioned with the other assassins – Kenobi and Skywalker – awere up to what Headache described as their ‘usual chaos,’ which Nepto briefly explained meant they were landing in otherwise innocuous locations and finding improbable Separatist weapons and warlords where all logic would have suggest sleepy villages and small planetary populations. This apparently tended to be the prelude to significant pushes in the front lines, either forwards or back. As we approached the door to the ground floor, Headache stopped talking, adjusted his equipment, and said, “I’d be careful in there if I were you, sir. I don’t think the Commander’s very happy you showed up without letting anyone know.”</p>
<p>“We’ll try to give him an explanation he can be satisfied with,” I said. Headache snorted.</p>
<p>“Good luck, sir.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I thought a lot about how to write this. I considered an emotional piece about a human escaping an evil Sith by ridiculous means. I thought about doing a bit of worldbuilding or exposition how I'd have explored it, if I were in that situation. I thought about not doing a self-insert, too. But at the end of the day, I decided that it would be a lot more fun to do what I'd always wanted to do if I were in Star Wars: I would find the bad guys, Spider-Man snark them, and have a lightsaber. That's what this is.</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>